Scientists have discovered a catastrophic loss of life in our oceans, we can reveal.
An Edinburgh-based research team fears plankton, the tiny organisms that sustain life in our seas, has all but been wiped out after spending two years collecting water samples from the Atlantic.
Previously, it was thought the amount of plankton had halved since the 1940s, but the evidence gathered by the Scots suggest 90% has now vanished.
Goes – based at Edinburgh University’s Roslin Innovation Centre in Midlothian – has been collecting samples from the Atlantic and the Caribbean from its yacht, Copepod.
Setting out from Scotland, it sailed along French and Portuguese coasts before crossing the Atlantic.
Plankton is made up of the billions of marine creatures and plants that drift in the currents of oceans and seas.
This brew is proving toxic to underwater life and once the water reaches a tipping point of acidity, vast amounts of plankton will simply dissolve. »